


Sweetbitter

by just_another_classic



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 15:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8166227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_another_classic/pseuds/just_another_classic
Summary: Killian Jones and his relationship with coffee throughout the years





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy National Coffee Day! Enjoy some Killian!

_"Coffee is a language in itself."_

  
  
He’s only been a pirate for a few weeks when he takes his first sip of coffee.  
  
It’s a bitter drink, dark and hot, and its grinds are left behind on his teeth when he drinks. And yet, he likes it. Or rather, he likes what it signifies.  
  
Coffee, Killian has learned, is a delicacy, something he never would have had the chance to taste in his youth. The merchants in this land sing its praises, the dark liquid bringing in swaths of gold from the upper classes. The King, Killian has found out, also is fond of the drink, if the large bags of its beans found in the merchant ships he’s pillaged mean anything.  
  
It does little to quench Killian’s thirst for vengeance, but it pleases him slightly to takes away the King’s treats. It’s a small act of defiance on his ever-growing list of treasons.

Killian drinks all the coffee he can.  
  
-/-  
  
“This is disgusting,” Milah says, slamming her cup forcefully on the table. She moves for his flask, her hands groping delightfully under his coat until she finds her treasure. Milah wastes no time taking a long pull of rum, and Killian does his best to stifle a laugh at her reaction.  
  
“I’m sorry it displeases you, my dear.”

“Why didn’t you warn me it was so disgusting? That’s a mean trick, Killian Jones,” she says, taking another drink from his flask.  
  
“I assure you, love, I wasn’t trying to trick you,” he says earnestly, and she glares at him in disbelief. He raises his hands in defense. “I swear it. I enjoy coffee’s taste, and thought you would, as well.”  
  
“Then you have terrible taste.” 

“And yet my taste in women is impeccable,” he says with a wink. He reaches out with his left hand and steals back his flask. Milah shakes her head and rolls her eyes.  
  
“You’re a charmer.”  
  
When she kisses him, she tastes of rum and coffee. It’s the most wonderful taste in the world.  
  
-/-  
  
Neverland doesn’t have coffee.  
  
He misses it. Then again, he misses many things these days.  
  
-/-  
  
“God, I could use a cup of coffee right now,” Emma says, rubbing her eyes as they pack up camp. They’ve been on this island for days, and Killian know she’s slept little on her quest to save her son. But still, her comment surprises him.  
  
“You have coffee in your realm?”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
Killian files away that fact for future use.

-/-

“Do you want some coffee?” Emma asks, her hands shaking as she opens and closes the cabinet doors in her kitchen, pulling out a bag of what he’s sure are ground beans.  
  
She doesn’t look at him when she asks, and Killian feels the knot in his gut tighten. He wonders, not for the first time, if he made the correct decision in returning her memories. True, her life had been lie, but she had been happy. Or so she says. And he’ll forever be the man who took that life away from her.  
  
But she’s offering him a drink now, a luxury drink even. That could mean something. And yet…

“No, thank you. I’ve got my rum.”  
  
“Of course,” Emma responds, and Killian wonders if he’s imagining the ghost of a smile that crosses her lips.  
  
-/-  
  
He quickly finds out that coffee is quite ubiquitous in this realm, and it could be purchased in any tavern or bazaar. In the Land Without Magic, they also flavor their drink with creams and sugars. It comes as no surprise, because sugars seem to be in everything.  
  
Killian isn’t a fan of the extra flavors, preferring his drink to be “black” as Emma calls it. Emma, herself, prefers two creams and three sugars.  
  
It doesn’t take him long to memorize her order.  
  
-/-  
  
Belle prefers tea to coffee. It’s something she has in common with Milah, not that he informs her of that similarity. Killian doubts that, as kind as Belle is, she would appreciate the comparison.  
  
Unlike Milah, Belle is optimistic. It’s the sort of optimism that Milah would have found grating had they known each other in real life and under different circumstances. Milah had always been more pragmatic, shaped by world and society that treated her so cruelly. Milah had never believed in happy endings.

Belle, despite all things, still does. Belle has faith that all things will work out in the end.  
  
Including freeing the fairies from the hat.  
  
Killian desperately hopes that Belle is correct.  
  
-/-  
  
Emma drinks her coffee with two creams and three sugars. On the days that the weather is warm, she asks for it iced. On particularly chilly days, she requests warm drinks called lattes, which contain espresso.  
  
“You remembered my order,” she says the first day that he brings her coffee unsolicited.  
  
She hides her smile behind the takeaway cup.

-/-  
  
There is coffee in the Underworld.  
  
It is bitter, hot, and it is terrible. 

-/-

  
Killian wakes one morning to an empty bed, and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee wafting from the kitchen. He slides on a pair of flannel pants that had been discarded the night prior, and pads down to the kitchen, leaving his brace on the nightstand.  
  
He is greeted be Emma, wearing nothing but his shirt, a mug in her hand.  
  
“Morning,” she greets.  
  
He doesn’t respond with words, and instead pulls her in for a kiss. She tastes of coffee and cream, and a better tomorrow.


End file.
